Monday, August 15, 2005

Again, I avoid the royal ass-fuckin' that the evil owners of the school book store, ::cough:: Barnes & Noble ::cough::, tried to dole out to me today. I don't know how they can get away with it. One of the two books required for one of my classes costs $85 used.

Let me first explain that this book is maybe 100 pages and paperback. It's also something that will probably be used for 2 chapters and then sold back to the bookstore for $40. Let me then paint this little picture for you... Most college students, like I was at one time, are 18-22 year-old kids who have to spend much of their college careers at their work-study job washing dishes in the cafeteria. These are kids who barely have enough money to pay for that $7 pitcher of piss-warm beer at the local pub on Friday night.

Not all of these kids are poor. Some get assistance from their parents who pay for every goddamn thing those kids do until they die...But who gives a fuck about them?? But the point is, these stores exploit these poor kids who pay over $600 for the "privilege" of using these books for a few hours, only to return them and get paid MAYBE half of what they did only to have B&N turn around and sell them for $600 again. What's even worse is when you pay $120 for a brand-spankin'-new book only to be given $4 at buy-back because a newer version is now out.

Is there a solution for this? Of course there is! There's got to be a way. This is America, land of capitalist pigs! So, you can make this system work for you, just as I do.

Every term, I go to the bookstore about 2-3 weeks before classes start, find the books that I need, and write down the ISBN #'s. Then, I go home or to the computer lab and check out a couple of online book resellers and buy the books at about a 40-60% discount. Then, when classes end, I go back online and list the books for around the same price, minus a reasonable allowance for any damage I might have caused. Sometimes, though, if the demand is great for the book, I post it at a profit. So far during this stint at school I've managed to come out even.

Now imagine if I weren't a full-time worker bee in the corporate world, and had to manage this deal on my own??? I'd be royally f'ed.